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IV.
The wise woman lifted her tenderly, and washed and dressed her far
more carefully than even her nurse. Then she set her down by the
fire, and prepared her breakfast. The princess was very hungry, and
the bread and milk as good as it could be, so that she thought she
had never in her life eaten any thing nicer. Nevertheless, as soon
as she began to have enough, she said to herself,--
"Ha! I see how it is! The old woman wants to fatten me! That is why
she gives me such nice creamy milk. She doesn't kill me now because
she's going to kill me then! She IS an ogress, after all!"
Thereupon she laid down her spoon, and would not eat another
mouthful--only followed the basin with longing looks, as the wise
woman carried it away.
When she stopped eating, her hostess knew exactly what she was
thinking; but it was one thing to understand the princess, and quite
another to make the princess understand her: that would require
time. For the present she took no notice, but went about the affairs
of the house, sweeping the floor, brushing down the cobwebs,
cleaning the hearth, dusting the table and chairs, and watering the
bed to keep it fresh and alive--for she never had more than one
guest at a time, and never would allow that guest to go to sleep
upon any thing that had no life in it All the time she was thus
busied, she spoke not a word to the princess, which, with the
princess, went to confirm her notion of her purposes. But whatever
she might have said would have been only perverted by the princess
into yet stronger proof of her evil designs, for a fancy in her own
head would outweigh any multitude of facts in another's. She kept
staring at the fire, and never looked round to see what the wise
woman might be doing.
By and by she came close up to the back of her chair, and said,
"Rosamond!"
But the princess had fallen into one of her sulky moods, and shut
herself up with her own ugly Somebody; so she never looked round or
even answered the wise woman.
"Rosamond," she repeated, "I am going out. If you are a good girl,
that is, if you do as I tell you, I will carry you back to your
father and mother the moment I return."
The princess did not take the least notice.
"Look at me, Rosamond," said the wise woman.
But Rosamond never moved--never even shrugged her shoulders--perhaps
because they were already up to her ears, and could go no farther.
"I want to help you to do what I tell you," said the wise woman.
"Look at me."
Still Rosamond was motionless and silent, saying only to herself,
"I know what she's after! She wants to show me her horrid teeth. But
I won't look. I'm not going to be frightened out of my senses to
please her."
"You had better look, Rosamond. Have you forgotten how you kissed me
this morning?"
But Rosamond now regarded that little throb of affection as a
momentary weakness into which the deceitful ogress had betrayed her,
and almost despised herself for it. She was one of those who the
more they are coaxed are the more disagreeable. For such, the wise
woman had an awful punishment, but she remembered that the princess
had been very ill brought up, and therefore wished to try her with
all gentleness first.
She stood silent for a moment, to see what effect her words might
have. But Rosamond only said to herself,--
"She wants to fatten and eat me."
And it was such a little while since she had looked into the wise
woman's loving eyes, thrown her arms round her neck, and kissed her!
"Well," said the wise woman gently, after pausing as long as it
seemed possible she might bethink herself, "I must tell you then
without; only whoever listens with her back turned, listens but
half, and gets but half the help."
"She wants to fatten me," said the princess.
"You must keep the cottage tidy while I am out. When I come back, I
must see the fire bright, the hearth swept, and the kettle boiling;
no dust on the table or chairs, the windows clear, the floor clean,
and the heather in blossom--which last comes of sprinkling it with
water three times a day. When you are hungry, put your hand into
that hole in the wall, and you will find a meal."
"She wants to fatten me," said the princess.
"But on no account leave the house till I come back," continued the
wise woman, "or you will grievously repent it. Remember what you
have already gone through to reach it. Dangers lie all around this
cottage of mine; but inside, it is the safest place--in fact the
only quite safe place in all the country."
"She means to eat me," said the princess, "and therefore wants to
frighten me from running away."
She heard the voice no more. Then, suddenly startled at the thought
of being alone, she looked hastily over her shoulder. The cottage
was indeed empty of all visible life. It was soundless, too: there
was not even a ticking clock or a flapping flame. The fire burned
still and smouldering-wise; but it was all the company she had, and
she turned again to stare into it.
Soon she began to grow weary of having nothing to do. Then she
remembered that the old woman, as she called her, had told her to
keep the house tidy.
"The miserable little pig-sty!" she said. "Where's the use of
keeping such a hovel clean!"
But in truth she would have been glad of the employment, only just
because she had been told to do it, she was unwilling; for there ARE
people--however unlikely it may seem--who object to doing a thing
for no other reason than that it is required of them.
"I am a princess," she said, "and it is very improper to ask me to
do such a thing."
She might have judged it quite as suitable for a princess to sweep
away the dust as to sit the centre of a world of dirt. But just
because she ought, she wouldn't. Perhaps she feared that if she gave
in to doing her duty once, she might have to do it always--which
was true enough--for that was the very thing for which she had been
specially born.
Unable, however, to feel quite comfortable in the resolve to neglect
it, she said to herself, "I'm sure there's time enough for such a
nasty job as that!" and sat on, watching the fire as it burned away,
the glowing red casting off white flakes, and sinking lower and
lower on the hearth.
By and by, merely for want of something to do, she would see what
the old woman had left for her in the hole of the wall. But when she
put in her hand she found nothing there, except the dust which she
ought by this time to have wiped away. Never reflecting that the
wise woman had told her she would find food there WHEN SHE WAS
HUNGRY, she flew into one of her furies, calling her a cheat, and a
thief, and a liar, and an ugly old witch, and an ogress, and I do
not know how many wicked names besides. She raged until she was
quite exhausted, and then fell fast asleep on her chair. When she
awoke the fire was out.
By this time she was hungry; but without looking in the hole, she
began again to storm at the wise woman, in which labor she would no
doubt have once more exhausted herself, had not something white
caught her eye: it was the corner of a napkin hanging from the hole
in the wall. She bounded to it, and there was a dinner for her of
something strangely good--one of her favorite dishes, only better
than she had ever tasted it before. This might surely have at least
changed her mood towards the wise woman; but she only grumbled to
herself that it was as it ought to be, ate up the food, and lay down
on the bed, never thinking of fire, or dust, or water for the
heather.
The wind began to moan about the cottage, and grew louder and
louder, till a great gust came down the chimney, and again scattered
the white ashes all over the place. But the princess was by this
time fast asleep, and never woke till the wind had sunk to silence.
One of the consequences, however, of sleeping when one ought to be
awake is waking when one ought to be asleep; and the princess awoke
in the black midnight, and found enough to keep her awake. For
although the wind had fallen, there was a far more terrible howling
than that of the wildest wind all about the cottage. Nor was the
howling all; the air was full of strange cries; and everywhere she
heard the noise of claws scratching against the house, which seemed
all doors and windows, so crowded were the sounds, and from so many
directions. All the night long she lay half swooning, yet listening
to the hideous noises. But with the first glimmer of morning they
ceased.
Then she said to herself, "How fortunate it was that I woke! They
would have eaten me up if I had been asleep." The miserable little
wretch actually talked as if she had kept them out! If she had done
her work in the day, she would have slept through the terrors of the
darkness, and awaked fearless; whereas now, she had in the
storehouse of her heart a whole harvest of agonies, reaped from the
dun fields of the night!
They were neither wolves nor hyenas which had caused her such
dismay, but creatures of the air, more frightful still, which, as
soon as the smoke of the burning fir-wood ceased to spread itself
abroad, and the sun was a sufficient distance down the sky, and the
lone cold woman was out, came flying and howling about the cottage,
trying to get in at every door and window. Down the chimney they
would have got, but that at the heart of the fire there always lay a
certain fir-cone, which looked like solid gold red-hot, and which,
although it might easily get covered up with ashes, so as to be
quite invisible, was continually in a glow fit to kindle all the
fir-cones in the world; this it was which had kept the horrible
birds--some say they have a claw at the tip of every
wing-feather--from tearing the poor naughty princess to pieces, and
gobbling her up.
When she rose and looked about her, she was dismayed to see what a
state the cottage was in. The fire was out, and the windows were all
dim with the wings and claws of the dirty birds, while the bed from
which she had just risen was brown and withered, and half its purple
bells had fallen. But she consoled herself that she could set all to
rights in a few minutes--only she must breakfast first. And, sure
enough, there was a basin of the delicious bread and milk ready for
her in the hole of the wall!
After she had eaten it, she felt comfortable, and sat for a long
time building castles in the air--till she was actually hungry
again, without having done an atom of work. She ate again, and was
idle again, and ate again. Then it grew dark, and she went trembling
to bed, for now she remembered the horrors of the last night. This
time she never slept at all, but spent the long hours in grievous
terror, for the noises were worse than before. She vowed she would
not pass another night in such a hateful haunted old shed for all
the ugly women, witches, and ogresses in the wide world. In the
morning, however, she fell asleep, and slept late.
Breakfast was of course her first thought, after which she could not
avoid that of work. It made her very miserable, but she feared the
consequences of being found with it undone. A few minutes before
noon, she actually got up, took her pinafore for a duster, and
proceeded to dust the table. But the wood-ashes flew about so, that
it seemed useless to attempt getting rid of them, and she sat down
again to think what was to be done. But there is very little indeed
to be done when we will not do that which we have to do.
Her first thought now was to run away at once while the sun was
high, and get through the forest before night came on. She fancied
she could easily go back the way she had come, and get home to her
father's palace. But not the most experienced traveller in the world
can ever go back the way the wise woman has brought him.
She got up and went to the door. It was locked! What could the old
woman have meant by telling her not to leave the cottage? She was
indignant.
The wise woman had meant to make it difficult, but not impossible.
Before the princess, however, could find the way out, she heard a
hand at the door, and darted in terror behind it. The wise woman
opened it, and, leaving it open, walked straight to the hearth.
Rosamond immediately slid out, ran a little way, and then laid
herself down in the long heather.
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